Perfectly Imperfect

Remember that tree you loved to climb as a kid? The one that wasn’t shaped so pretty? The one with the low branches you could actually reach without a boost?

I see beauty there among the ivy and moss. Among the sometimes leafless and gnarled branches. In the uniqueness of its shape and form. Being the tree it was meant to be.

Perfectly imperfect.

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I have witnessed stunning patches of wildflowers by the roadside. I stopped to pick a few only to find that there were petals missing, flowers damaged, leaves torn in half.

But when they’re growing side by side and you take a step back, they make a picture as beautiful as any you’ve ever seen.

When assembled together as they are, the imperfections disappear.

Perfectly imperfect.

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I’d like to believe that not seeing the missing, the damaged, and the torn as a flaw in another is within the power of every one of us.

Those things that are broken or different inside each of us–or even on the outside–the things we usually deem “imperfections” in each other, are part of what make us human.

They’re not flaws, they’re part of who we are and what we have to offer.

They create opportunities to learn from each other.

Opportunities to rely on one another.

Opportunities to give and receive help.

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Many years ago–forty-two to be precise–my husband chose me and I chose him.

As we’ve grown older, we’ve each had our challenges to being physically able, finding it difficult now to do things we used to do with ease.

Over the years we’ve encountered injury and arthritis.

Bad hips and replaced knees.

Disc issues and bone spurs.

I’ll be your legs, you be my arms.

And yet we’ve been able to accomplish so much more than either one of us could have accomplished alone just by working together.

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This is where I believe our love for one another as human beings can make the most difference.

When we ignore the “imperfections” we see in others and offer what we have to help them when they are struggling instead of criticizing, and we accept what they offer us when we are struggling, then, like the wildflowers, we create a picture as beautiful as any we’ve ever seen.

In this world of imperfections, to be able to give love and receive love is the most precious and perfect thing we can do.